The smell of propriety…

Digital rights is an issue that is far from resolved. And companies have still not figured out how to use file sharing on the internet or the internet in general to market (i.e. sell) their intellectual property. Specifcally, I’m thinking music and movies. I’d like to present an analogy:

I like the smell of cinamon. It is particularly pleasing to walk past Saint Cinamon in the mall and catch that glorious sent. However, I rarely, if ever actually purchase a cinamon roll. But I know where to find one if I actually want to eat one.

Others perhaps smell that smell for the first time or the first to in a while and are very much inticed to buy a roll and often do. Others still are regular customers and are well acquainted with the smell and taste of cinamon rolls.

So what’s the difference between all of these people? Some people purchase the product, while others simply enjoy the smell. The air is free to enjoy but that smell wasn’t free to make. Would Saint Cinamon like to charge people for smelling the smell of their rolls? Perhaps…and almost certainly if they were a big record label. This the mistake of the Record Labels, they are trying to charge all the ’smellers’. This encourages people to come up with ingenius ways of avoiding being charged for a smell. The Record Labels seem to miss the idea that some smellers turn into buyers, but on the other hand some are lifelong smellers, who don’t want all the calories that come with being a buyer.